Bucha, Ukraine - 27 Feb 2022 - 15mm

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Project Entry by oriskany

Hunting Big Cats in the Ardennes - Tank Clash in the Battle of the Bulge

May 21, 2022

Tutoring 9

Skill 9

Idea 9

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Join myself and community member Chris as we sit down for a small game of “Late War” Panzer Leader set in the wintery Ardennes Forest. It’s the second week of the Battle of the Bulge, and the stalled heavy armor of the infamous “Kampfgruppe Peiper” is about to be counterattacked by the US 3^rd Armored “Spearhead” Division (Combat Command “B”).

Can the American Shermans use numbers, speed, tactics, and their new long 76mm guns to counter the heavier German armor? They’ll have to use every trick in the book, because among the German “big cats” are the rare and dreaded “Tiger II” of the Schwere SS-Panzer Abteilung 501.

Sunday – 2PM East US Time / 7PM UK
Sitrep Podcast YouTube

The specific part of the Battle of the Bulge we'll be looking at today. A viewer specifically requested King Tigers, so I gravitated toward Kampfgruppe Peiper (where most of these machines were deployed for this battle) and to set up a heads-up tank match, settled on where KG Peiper was counterattacked by elements of CCB, 3rd Armored Division.

Here we see the three task forces of CCB (Combat Command B) / 3rd US Armored involved in the counterattacks against KG Peiper's stalled positions at Stoumont and especially La Greize.

Composition tables for 3rd US Armored and constituent formations. Of course we'll only be using a small part of these.

The infamous KG Peiper. By the time of today's engagement it was well below strength (for lack of fuel as well as enemy action). Also, KG Peiper was spread between two major positions (Stoumont and La Greize) - and we're only doing La Greize, so again ... we won't have nearly this much on the table.

The map, based on 150m hexes. TF McGeorge enters from blue hexes to the northweast. TF Lovelady enters from the red hexes to the southeast,

German forces engaged. It's a rare thing when you can use Tiger IIs with "historical honestly."

American forces. I'm not 100% sure if the upgraded Shermans were M4/76s or full-blow "Easy Eights." Easy Eights were JUST entering service, and as one of only two US "heavy armored" divisions, the 3rd would have been the first to get them. In any event, the M4/76 and the Easy Eight have identical game values, so no worries there.